Correspondence, 1935-1979 and undated

This series consists of the professional correspondence of Maurice Annenberg. He corresponded with institutions, individuals, and firms on a wide variety of topics related to typography. Some of these inquiries resulted in long-standing friendships, such as with Terry Belanger at Columbia University and Steven Saxe. He also maintained correspondence with newsletter publishers to whom he offered advice on type and business practices. He was a member of many charities, civic groups, and professional organizations and corresponded with those groups. He wrote to government agencies and officials to voice his concern or offer suggestions for revising policies. This series also contains some examples of typography work sent along with letters by some of his correspondents. These include reprints, samples, advertising, book publication notices, brochures, catalogs, and book lists.

Separate folders were created for any correspondent with whom there were more than two pages of correspondence. When there was only a single page of correspondence with an individual, it was grouped alphabetically in folders under the initial letters of the correspondent's surname. Most of the correspondence was conducted with businesses and has been filed in folders for institutions, businesses, or print shops; otherwise a correspondent is listed under his or her own name. In the folder headings for institutions or businesses, names of the individual correspondents appear after the institution or business name. Annenberg made carbons of many of his letters, so frequently both sides of the correspondence are represented in individual folders. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically and, within individual correspondents' files, chronologically.

Any newsletters or catalogs regularly published by an individual or firm are located in Series VI. Correspondence related to subjects in which Annenberg was interested, i.e., gun control and stadium funding, is filed in Series IV, Personal Topics, with related materials. Correspondence related to Type Foundries of America and Their Catalogues is filed in Series V, Research for Type Foundries of America and Their Catalogues, in order to maintain the integrity of Annenberg’s filing system.